Birchwood xylan

Carboxymethyl cellulose sodium salt (CMC), Avicel (PH-101), glucose, cellobiose, salicin, locust bean gum mannan and laminarin were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). Konjac glucomannan (KGM), birchwood xylan, beechwood xylan, lichenan, guar galactomannan, carob galactomannan, larch arabinogalactan and wheat arabinoxylan were purchased from Megazyme (Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland). Whatman^® filter paper (75 mm × 100 mm) was cut into circle paper units of 0.5 mm × 0.5 mm. Kanamycin and chloramphenicol were purchased from PanReac AppliChem (Ottoweg, Darmstadt, Germany).

Table S1 lists the bacterial strains, primers, and plasmids that were used in this study. Plasmids were propagated in E. coli DH5α (the transformation hosts) and were subsequently transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3). Substrates including beechwood xylan, birchwood xylan, xylotetraose (X4), xylotriose (X3), and xylobiose (X2) were procured from Megazyme. All other chemicals were of analytical grade.

Analytical grade substrates were used. The pre-packed 5 mL HisTrap^™ affinity (HP), PD-10 desalting columns (Sephadex G-25 resin), and size exclusion chromatography column (HiLoad^® Superdex, 75 pg) used for protein purification were obtained from GE Healthcare. Amorphous, phosphoric acid swollen cellulose (PASC) was prepared from Avicel according to the method described before [53 ]. High-purity substrates include barley β-glucan, lichenan, konjac glucomannan, wheat arabinoxylan, birchwood xylan, and tamarind xyloglucan purchased from Megazyme. The model crystalline cellulose substrate Avicel PH-101, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), gum arabic and standard cello-oligomers were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich.